Chase Rice, singer, ex-UNC football player, under fire for big concert with unmasked fans
Chase Rice, a former North Carolina football player turned country singer, is attracting attention on social media after sharing videos of his packed concert in Tennessee Saturday night on Instagram.
The video, which Rice shared to his Instagram story, shows fans standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Most are not wearing any type of face covering.
Kelsea Ballerini, another country musician, retweeted a screen recording of the video.
“Imagine being selfish enough to put thousands of people’s health at risk, not to mention the potential ripple effect, and play a NORMAL country concert right now,” Ballerini wrote.
Other postings criticizing Rice have made the rounds on Twitter, and a video Rice shared of him rehearsing for the concert with his band shows a number of negative comments.
Rice posted a statement about the concert to his Instagram account Monday evening.
“You guys are everything to me, so your safety’s a huge, huge priority,” Rice said in the video. “The biggest thing for all of us is the safer we are now, the quicker that we get to get actual, normal live shows, which I know we all want.”
The concert took place at Brushy State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. In a statement to Variety on Sunday, the vice president of the Brushy Mountain Group, Brian May, said that “all local requirements were abided by for the recent concert, and numerous precautions were taken.” May also told Variety less than 1,000 people were in attendance and that all were given temperature checks upon entrance.
At least three more concerts are scheduled at the venue as part of its Live at Brushy series this summer.
Earlier on Saturday, the Tennessee Department of Health tweeted that the state’s total case number had surpassed 40,000.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has said that he will not mandate mask wearing statewide, but encourages people to wear them. Certain cities though, including Nashville and Memphis, are considering or have already enacted mask mandates.
Rice is scheduled to play a drive-in concert at Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, Kentucky on July 3. He released an EP, “The Album: Part II,” on May 15.
On March 15, Rice shared a video of himself singing to Instagram with the caption “Dear corona...” The opening lines of the song go: “Dear corona, you don’t know the heart of a country fan / You don’t know that we don’t give a damn / So you can reschedule Stagecoach / But you gotta understand / That you don’t know the heart of a country fan.”
Rice grew up in Fairview, about 12 miles from Asheville, and was a linebacker at UNC from 2005-08. His NFL aspirations were thwarted when he tore a tendon in his left ankle at the beginning of his junior season with the Tar Heels. After college, he joined Hendrick Motorsports, headquartered in Concord, as a member of its NASCAR pit crew.
In 2010, Rice finished second on the CBS reality show “Survivor: Nicaragua” by one vote. He also made an appearance on Season 24 of “The Bachelor,” performing in front of a small crowd that included bachelor Peter Weber and contestant Victoria Fuller at an amusement park in Ohio. It was revealed that Rice and Fuller had been romantically involved prior to Fuller’s time on the show.
The U.S. surpassed 2 million coronavirus cases on June 10. Globally, case numbers have risen to over 10 million with over 500,000 deaths as of Sunday. In North Carolina, 1,342 new cases were reported Monday, bringing the state’s total to 63,484.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Chase Rice, singer, ex-UNC football player, under fire for big concert with unmasked fans."